Tuesday, May 26, 2009

2009 Blog Reader Survey

Every year I conduct a survey of the readers of my blog. Its aim is severalfold. I genuinely want to know what you like or dislike about the blog - what you think I am getting right and what I am not. In addition, it's an opportunity to find out more about you, your politics and background. It's partly because I am nosy and partly because I can then make a more accurate pitch to potential advertisers. Advertisers are taking blogs increasingly seriously, but they need accurate information about a blog's readers if they are going to pay for space. There are several sections...

I've certainly noticed some strange adverts on this blog over the last few months. When you went to Russia, you couldn't move for all the adverts asking if we wanted to date Russian women.

Over at Guido's blog today, I noticed that Ministry of Sound (of all people) were using it to advertise a forthcoming compilation of theirs. Certainly debunks the myth that blogs like this have an audience consisting entirely of boring old farts, doesn't it?

In your survey you ask people about other blogs that they read. Why did you not include Craig Murray's blog in the options list? Like him or not, his blog is one of the most important on the go due to his inside knowledge of international diplomacy. Why this reluctance to acknowledge his existence?

Wish I'd done this survey after I'd read that ghastly article on this blog about why a Conservative student activist should be politically castrated and boiled in oil for writing a poorly expressed, naive article in a small university paper that dared to be critical (apparently) of the current party overlords' conflicted European stance.